NOTE: for more about Desiree Smart and Destiny, see my story ‘Term Time Bust Up’.

A few days later, Delphi came to an unexpected realisation…

She was bored. This life of luxury wasn’t all that she had expected, at all.

She loved all her companions; she also loved having more money than she knew what to do with. Low risk investments were making sure that her funds were only increasing, not decreasing. Indeed, she’d passed the £4.2tn mark just yesterday…

The problem was she wasn’t allowed to ‘do’ anything.

She didn’t have to work at all; Anne was there for that; she did ask Delphi questions occasionally, but that normally only took an hour or two a week.

Every time she tried to cook or experiment in the kitchen, the sisters shooed her out, saying they were there to do anything for her. She’d even got told off trying to plant some flowers in the garden by the gardener, who had told her that she was putting them in the wrong place and she could hurt herself.

Finally, she’d had enough.

The sisters had attempted to shoo her out of the kitchen again, while she was having some more ‘me time’ with her daughter, having fun getting breakfast.

Delphi lost her rag, completely.

To the sisters amazement, she kicked them both out of the kitchen.

“Go and tidy some bedrooms, somewhere!”, she shouted. “And don’t come back in until I say so!”

Shocked, they had quickly made themselves scarce. What had they done wrong?

Word quickly got round, especially due to the fact that Delphi had really raised her voice shouting at the sisters. Even Ginny was shocked.

“Mum, what’s up? You never shout at people.”

“I do now! I’m pissed off at not being able to do anything for myself! Sometimes, I just want a normal life!”

Delphi just started crying.

Upset herself, Ginny hugged her. She then shouted for Anne and Girl…

Girl took Delphi back to her room, still sobbing, while Ginny and Anne tried to work out what was wrong.

They eventually decided that one of Delphi’s earlier suggestions, about a psychologist visit, needed implementing ASAP…

Anne started making phone calls. She had heard of just the person…

A few days later, there was a knock at the door.

The sisters opened it to a vision.

“Hello darlings”, this six-foot red-headed woman in a red latex dress said. “I’m Destiny, and this is Desiree, my trainee assistant. I believe you’re expecting us?”

“Erm, yes Ma’am”, one of the sisters said. “If you come this way, I’ll take you to see Ms Masters.”

Delphi was sitting with Anne in the drawing room as the sisters led Destiny and Desiree in.

“Ah, good”, said Anne. “Thank you for coming, Destiny. I think you’ll find you’ve got your work cut out for you, here.”

“Which job?”, Destiny said, curious. “Psychiatrist, or Dominatrix?”

“I think a bit of both”, said Delphi. “Perhaps you can tell me why I feel like strangling everyone, even though I want for nothing.”

“I somehow feel that the second comment is the cause of the first, but we will see”, said Destiny. “You also said something about someone afraid of a loss of control?”

“That would be all of us, except Girl and Delphi”, said Anne.

“Girl?”

“That’s her name, now. She’s completely binned her old personality; she’s definitely the better for it, though; we like her exactly as she is, as does she, so she’s the only one of us that doesn’t need fixing.”

As if by magic, Girl appeared, wearing her transparent catsuit and hood. She looked Destiny over, and Desiree, quickly pulled her hood off, kissed both of them, put it back on and left.

“See what I mean…?” said Anne.

“Intriguing…!”, said Destiny.

The sisters soon set Destiny and Desiree up in one of the spare bedrooms and laid on Internet Access for them.

“Could you please ask Delphi to join us?”, Destiny asked. “Desiree, stay with me for now. I want you to sit in on this.”

The sisters left and shortly returned, accompanied by Delphi.

“Now”, said Destiny, getting straight down to business, “what’s up with you, you stroppy cow?”

“How dare you talk to me like that!”, shouted Delphi, instantly standing up to leave.

“Sit! Down!”, said Destiny, sternly.

Delphi went white as a sheet and sat. Destiny’s working voice commanded respect.

“Good. At least you still have some measure of self-respect left”, said Destiny.

“Now, tell me what’s really bugging you…”

Delphi told Destiny and Desiree quite a bit. Their talk went on for quite some time. Mainly, though, it boiled down to Delphi not being used to having people doing things for her, as well as the responsibility of suddenly having an extended family.

“The money’s not everything”, she said. “I think I really didn’t realise what I was taking on. I sort of wish I’d never started this.”

“Does that mean you wish you’d never met me?”, came a distraught cry from the doorway.

Ginny was standing there.

“I didn’t mean….!”, said Delphi, jumping up.

Too late. Ginny had already run off down the corridor, crying…

Delphi was too upset to continue the session.

“Anne was right”, said Destiny. “I Have got my work cut out for me. This is going to be a long one, Desiree. We’ll have to move everything for the rest of the week.”

She turned to Delphi.

“We’re going to need to stay on site. OK if we carry on using this bedroom?”

“Sure. Do you two need separate beds, or…?”

“No, that won’t be a problem. We’ve been sleeping together for a while, now.”

Desiree smiled at that. Destiny was an amazing lover…

With a chuckle, Delphi left the pair to get settled.

She then remembered about Ginny.

She set off to find her.

She eventually worked out that she, unsurprisingly, was in Girl’s room. There, she ran into a problem…

Girl wouldn’t let her get near her. She wasn’t having ‘her’ lover hurt again.

“Sod off, Delphi, you callous bitch! I won’t let you hurt her again!”

“Girl, please! I just want to talk to her!”

“You’ve done enough damage already! Take a hike!”

“Who do you think you are, talking to me like that!”, Delphi said, now getting really annoyed with Girl.

“Someone that cares about Ginny, unlike you!”, Girl snapped back. Delphi jerked as if she had been slapped.

“That’s not fair, and you know it!”, she cried.

“Really? Then why is she in here crying her eyes out, telling me you hate being lumbered with her?”

Delphi, suddenly ashamed, had no answer for her…

“That’s what I thought. Now fuck off.”

Girl slammed the door in Delphi’s face…

More depressed than ever, Delphi went back to her room. She just locked the door and went straight to bed…

Destiny and Desiree carried on working the following day, interviewing the rest of the ‘residents’ at the manor. Anne particularly found the session very useful. She apologised to Ginny for being ‘over the top’ with her punishment regarding the romper suit, and Ginny forgave her.

It was only then that they realised that they hadn’t seen Delphi all day…

Suddenly worried, they looked for her. They got no answer from her room, and it was locked…

The sisters reported back that she was nowhere else in the manor and the gardener hadn’t seen her outside, so where was she?

Ginny went white…

“Oh no…”

She’d had a ‘sixth sense’ that something was really wrong. Delphi never normally locked her door…

She tried the master key, but Delphi had left the key in the lock. She and Girl then kicked the door in…

Delphi was lying on the floor, unconscious, an empty whisky bottle beside her. She’d drunk the whole lot…

“Damn it!”, cried Ginny. “I should have known something was wrong. She never locks her door. Also, she doesn’t drink…”

“Anne! Anne! Call the emergency services…!!”

The paramedics quickly arrived, assessed Delphi, and took her straight to hospital, where she was treated. Ginny went with her. She had a minor panic attack in the ambulance, because she hadn’t left the manor in so long, but her worry for Delphi overrode it.

Delphi didn’t wake up for a week. Ginny kept phoning through regular updates; Girl was really worried about her, being out in the ‘real world’. Anne had a real problem keeping Girl from cracking up…

Destiny and Desiree became lifesavers. Girl calmed down under their expert touch. Once she had done, Anne was able to help her.

Finally, Delphi was allowed home. The taxi dropped her and Ginny off one evening.

Delphi was still worrying people, however. She wouldn’t talk to anyone; she just went straight to her room and went back to bed. This time, however, she couldn’t shut anyone out because of the broken door…

Ginny went straight in and got into bed with her.

“Mum! Please! Talk to me!”

Delphi still said nothing. She did, however, start stroking Ginny’s head…

It took a long time for Delphi to recover.

She was so ashamed of herself and what she had done to Ginny (and the others, to a lesser extent) that she almost didn’t. It was only the love that the others showed her that pulled her out of the black depression that she had sunk into.

All the time, Destiny had been watching. She was at last understanding how complicated the ‘family dynamic’ at the manor was. She was going to have to teach Delphi about what it meant to really be responsible for people.

Once Delphi was back on her feet, she called her in to her ‘office’ in her bedroom.

“You need to understand one thing above all”, she said. “No matter what your own feelings may be, you are now responsible for these people. They are all family to you, especially Ginny. Just because they are all your, well, property as well has nothing to do with it. They all care for you; you should care for them at least equally.”

“I do!”, said Delphi. “But it’s so tiring…”

“That’s what being a mother is all about”, said Destiny. “You’re essentially mother to an extended family; that is how all of your ‘pets’ see you. They also all love you too, don’t ever forget that. The only problem with all this is that it’s extraordinarily easy to hurt someone’s feelings in a situation like this. Even Anne, the most responsible of them, was upset when she thought you’d wished you’d never come here. They are all just as close to you as your adopted daughter, Ginny.”

At that point, one of the sisters looked round the door and asked if anyone wanted tea, desperately trying to make it look like she hadn’t been listening…

Destiny got up and looked out into the corridor, then beckoned Delphi to come too…

All of the ‘pets’ were queued up outside, listening. They were all concerned about Delphi. They were worried she was going to leave…

“That’s what true love looks like…”, said Destiny, simply. Delphi just dissolved in a heap…

All of the pets descended on her and hugged her.

“You can come in the kitchen anytime to help”, the sisters said.

“I welcome your input in the office”, said Anne.

“I love you, mum!”, said Ginny.

“Me too!”, said Girl.

The gardener just hugged her.

Content, Delphi let them take her back to bed. She couldn’t even remember whose turn it was…!